Though Archie lacked Benny's technological skills, he understood the situation. Pearson Group made no progress all morning. With Benny's sudden defeat, their opponent was clearly an expert, and not someone from Pearson Group. A whole morning should have been ample time for Pearson Group to seek outside help.

“It might be… someone from Farwell Group,” Archie concluded. Farwell Group's technical team was renowned for its excellence. Besides, if the woman was truly Essie's mother, it was illogical for Pearson Group not to enlist Farwell Group's assistance.

Benny frowned and pursed his lips, furious upon hearing this. He knew the woman was Estella's mother, but she had also bullied his own mother. He couldn't believe Lucian had helped Aubree.

"No way. I have to teach them a lesson," he muttered.

Benny grabbed his laptop, his expression serious, his fingers flying across the keyboard. Meanwhile, Pearson Group's technical department employees gathered around their supervisor's workstation, watching the genius at work. They saw a stream of code appearing on the screen. Soon, the cartoons on the computer screens disappeared one by one.

"Is it done?" Aubree asked excitedly. As she prepared to thank her savior, his expression hardened, and her own heart sank.

"Supposedly. But…" He frowned, watching a new code appear automatically—simpler than the previous virus. A message appeared: Are you from Farwell Group?

The hacker is talking to me, the employee thought.

Hesitantly, the employee replied, "Yes."

More code appeared: How dare you help that evil woman? I'm angry now!

The conversation vanished, replaced by an attack even more complex than the virus.

"What's going on? Who is this?" Aubree's face turned purple with rage.

Caught off guard, the employee ignored her and focused on combating the hacker, but the earlier conversation felt strangely off. The hacker possessed incredible skills, yet their message sounded childish.

That afternoon, seeing their employee hadn't returned, Cayden hesitantly asked, "Mr. Farwell, the person we sent to Pearson Group hasn't returned. Should we send someone else?"

"We'll wait for Pearson Group to come to us," Lucian replied calmly. Each request from Pearson Group represented a debt owed to him.

Cayden hummed in agreement and changed the subject. "The afternoon executive meeting starts in ten minutes. Shall we proceed?"

Lucian nodded and headed to the conference room, followed by Cayden. Cayden noticed Lucian repeatedly glancing at his phone. This was unusual; Lucian rarely kept his phone nearby during meetings. He continued to surreptitiously check his phone throughout the meeting.

Cayden was perplexed but remained silent until the meeting's end.

"Mr. Farwell, is there something important happening today?" he asked cautiously.

Lucian's brow furrowed, his annoyance evident.

"No," he replied coldly. He checked his phone again, still no calls. With displeasure, he put it away.

(Please note: I removed the promotional text for FindNovel.net.)